WARNING: Obscene language used

Maine Republican Gov. Paul LePage has unleashed an obscene tirade on a Democratic legislator, leaving him a message that said “I am after you” and telling reporters he wished he could point a gun between the legislator’s eyes.

The governor made a series of racially charged comments, including a reprise of comments he made in January about black and Hispanic drug dealers bringing heroin to Maine and impregnating white girls while they’re here.

LePage repeated the comments at a town hall in North Berwick on Wednesday night, then defended them Thursday in an interview with reporters at the Blaine House. Scott Thistle of the Portland Press Herald was one of them.

But that’s not all, according to Thistle’s reporting. After a reporter told LePage at the State House that Rep. Drew Gattine, D-Westbrook had criticized LePage’s comments, LePage left a obscene message on Gattine’s voicemail. (Warning: It is quite obscene.)

“I’ve spent my life helping black people and you little son-of-a-bitch, socialist c**ksucker,” said LePage, according to audio of the call. “I want you to record this and make it public because I am after you.”

LePage also told Thistle he would like to have a gun duel with Gattine and that he’d point his gun “right between” Gattine’s eyes.

Gattine, a second-term lawmaker and co-chair of the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee, has long clashed with LePage and his administration, particularly on health care issues. More clashes are near certain in the coming two years, with LePage finishing his second term and Gattine headed to re-election unopposed.

Gattine told the BDN this morning that calling someone a racist “is one of the worst things you could ever call a person and I have never called anyone that.”

“I don’t think racially charged remarks like that are at all helpful for trying to solve the crisis we have with heroin overdoses,” said Gattine. “The biggest problem we have right now is not getting addicts the treatment they need. … I’m not going to throw fuel on the fire by making this about name calling.”

Gattine said he will continue to oppose some of LePage’s and Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew’s initiatives related to dealing with Maine’s drug addiction crisis, including a pending DHHS Medicaid rule change that advocates for drug treatment centers said will drive some out of operation.

House Democratic leaders quickly condemned LePage’s comments in a prepared statement containing some of their harshest criticism yet of the governor.

“Paul LePage is not mentally or emotionally fit to hold office,” reads the statement. “His words and actions have crossed a line. Threats of violence are never acceptable and cannot be tolerated in civilized society.”

LePage’s office has not responded to questions from the Bangor Daily News about his recent comments.

Also on Wednesday, LePage told radio show host Howie Carr that Khizr Kahn, the father of a Muslim captain who died fighting for the U.S. Army and who is campaigning against Donald Trump, is a “con artist.” It’s another story circulatingacross the country.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.